E-mail marketing service provider NetCreations is forming a cooperative database for e-mail addresses. Purporting it to be the first e-mail co-op, the New York-based company plans to link more than 200 lists and six million opt-in e-mail addresses.
The Opt-In Alliance will invite the more than 200 third-party sites whose e-mail addresses are managed by NetCreations’ PostMasterDirect.com service to mail to each other’s lists. For every e-mail address contributed, the mailer gets to receive two. Each contributor must put in at least 5,000 addresses.
Comparing the alliance to an “Abacus for the Web,” Rosalind Resnick, NetCreations’ president, said, “There’s an incredible demand for opt-in e-mail lists out there. Our partners have come to us and said they want the ability to mail to each other’s lists to reach targeted prospects.”
Each PostMasterDirect.com partner site will automatically be admitted to the alliance if they wish. Then, other e-commerce companies may join.
Unlike off-line co-op databases, mailings will only be allowed to go to Internet customers who have specifically opted in to receive e-mail messages relevant to them. “When it comes to the Internet, you can’t just append and overlay consumer behavior and expect people to be happy about it,” Resnick pointed out.
The alliance is expected to be up and running by the end of January.
NetCreations became a public company Dec. 12.
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